


Sew Up the Seams

by celeste9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Complicated Relationships, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hair Braiding, Hair Brushing, Multi, Pre-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-07 06:50:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14075316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: Leia, Luke, and Lando struggle with more than just rescuing Han in the desert of Tatooine.





	Sew Up the Seams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/gifts).



> Title from The Gaslight Anthem.

If there was more to Tatooine than sand, Leia had yet to encounter it. The sand got everywhere, in her clothes, her boots, her eyes. Sometimes Leia felt as though she could taste it behind her teeth, gritty and tacky. The wind blew it everywhere and the air was so dry it seemed to sap every ounce of hydration from her body.

She was leaning against the outside of the door when Luke returned, speeder kicking up yet more of that blasted sand. He hopped out, cloak swirling around him.

“Come inside,” Luke said, his fingers trailing over Leia’s hip, and she went with him.

In the tiny kitchen Leia poured him blue milk and said, “Are you going to tell me what you’ve been up to?”

“It’s not important.” Luke took a sip.

“Not important?”

Luke shrugged.

Leia breathed deep. In, out. Luke had taken to leaving for long stretches of time and he only communicated what he was doing some of the time. Leia was trying to be patient; she knew that Luke had been through an ordeal on Bespin, an ordeal that he didn’t trust her enough, apparently, to talk to her about. She also knew that this must be difficult for him, being on Tatooine again.

But Luke had never shut her out before and Leia didn’t like it. She also didn’t like being kept in the dark, and if Luke’s absences had anything to do with Han then Leia deserved to know about it.

“Chewbacca was supposed to contact you today, wasn’t he?” Luke asked. “Did he have anything?”

Leia shook her head. “Not unless you count Chewie threatening to rip out Threepio’s arms.”

Luke smiled faintly. “Maybe not an ideal grouping there.”

“I didn’t want Chewbacca alone, and I need Lando here now.”

There was no talk of Luke going. Leia wouldn’t have it, and Luke seemed to have his own plans regardless.

“Artoo won’t let Threepio get roughed up too badly,” Luke said.

There was a sound at the door. Leia’s hand went to her blaster but a voice called out, “It’s me,” and she relaxed.

Lando strode in, dropping into a seat at the little table near Luke. He somehow managed to look as elegantly kept in Han’s borrowed clothes on this hot, dusty planet as he had in his cape back in Cloud City.

Leia handed him a glass of the milk and he drank gratefully. Without prompting he said, “The lead fizzled out.”

Leia let out a breath. Blast.

“Chewbacca?”

“Nothing.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Lando said, but it was the same thing they had been saying for ages now.

 _We’ll figure it out._ They still didn’t know if Han was alive or dead, or where he was if he was still alive. All they had was rumors.

Luke pushed his chair back. “I’m tired. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Leia stared after him but couldn’t find the energy to make him stay. She was worried, but he wouldn’t let her in, and there was still Han.

“Let me make you something,” Lando offered, and Leia didn’t have it in her to refuse.

He was quiet as he moved around the kitchen but there was a weird sort of comfort in it. Leia had loathed him with a sense of burning anger on Bespin and after, for the way he had handled Vader, making agreements with him, letting Han be taken. She was almost surprised by how easily the anger had faded into acceptance and what was almost a grudging affection. Chewbacca had gone away with him and hadn’t ripped Lando’s arms out, and that had gone a long way towards changing Leia’s mind about him.

So had his dedication to fixing things, to finding Han, and his evident guilt for the way it had all shaken out. The first few days had been awkward and uncomfortable. Then Leia and Lando had gotten drunk together and talked – argued, shouted, and finally commiserated about Han.

Anger had seemed pointless after that. They needed each other to rescue Han and Leia finally believed they genuinely wanted the same thing.

And she finally believed Lando genuinely regretted what he had done. If they forgave no one their mistakes the Rebellion would be much smaller.

“How’s Luke?” Lando asked, setting a plate of eggs in front of Leia before sitting down with a plate of his own.

She shrugged. “You saw him.”

“Yeah, and you know him better than I do.”

“He’s fine.”

“Things seemed… tense.”

“He’s fine,” Leia said again, and Lando chewed and swallowed.

“If you say so.”

Leia considered a moment, and sighed. “Luke has always been so… uncomplicated. When he’s happy, you know it, and when he’s not, you know it. Something happened in Cloud City and he won’t tell me about it but it changed him. I’m worried, but I don’t know how to…”

“Maybe,” Lando said, “you should just remember that when he’s ready, he’ll come to you.”

“Well, that’s disgustingly practical of you.”

Lando chuckled. “He obviously adores you. I’m sure he just needs time.”

“Time,” Leia said, scowling. “Time I’m not so good at.”

“You strike me as a model of patience.”

Leia set her gaze on him, astonished, only to see that he was smiling at her. “Oh, yes, very funny.”

“It’ll be okay,” Lando said, surprising her by setting his hand on hers. Leia couldn’t stop staring at the contrast of their touching skin. “So will Han.”

But it was getting harder and harder to believe that all the time.

-

They had settled in an abandoned homestead; Luke told Leia that settlers often only stayed on for a season or two, raising funds so they could move on to something better. The dwelling had a couple of bedrooms, one of which Leia claimed, while Luke and Lando shared the other. Leia felt vaguely selfish about this but didn’t exactly want to give up the privacy. Nor, honestly, did she think it was a good idea to share space with Lando, and Luke seemed ill-inclined to share with her.

She discovered that Luke was gone again in the morning, departed early enough that Lando hadn’t seen him. She spent the day in a fierce enough temper that Lando stayed well out of her way.

“Where have you been?” she demanded when Luke returned late that evening. The nerve of him, not even telling anyone he was leaving, anything could have happened, he could have been hurt, he could have been killed. After… after Han… He should have known better. “And if you say it’s not important, so help me--”

“I went to see the Darklighters,” Luke said.

Leia’s mouth dropped open; no sound came out. She closed it.

Lando was watching them in silence.

The Darklighters. Biggs. Of course.

Leia suddenly felt horrible. “Are you alright?”

Luke rubbed the back of his head. “I’m tired, honestly.”

Touching his wrist, Leia said, “Are you hungry? We ate; I’ll heat you something.”

“No, that’s all right. Thank you, Leia. I think I just want to be alone.”

Leia watched him walk off, feeling useless.

“The Darklighters?” Lando said into the quiet once Luke had gone.

Leia dropped down onto the not terribly comfortable bench in the corner. She pressed her fingertips to her temples. “Biggs Darklighter. He was one of our pilots; he was a friend of Luke’s, from growing up here on Tatooine. He died during the attack on the Death Star.”

Lando sat beside her. “Poor kid.”

“We’ve all lost someone,” Leia said, though she regretted it as soon as the words left her mouth. They had all lost someone, or many someones, or more than that, but that didn’t negate Luke’s loss.

He was struggling, though Leia didn’t think it was about Biggs anymore, not truly. She didn’t know how to help.

Lando reached over to rub her shoulders, gently kneading into the muscle; Leia flinched.

“What--”

“You’re too tense, Princess. Relax a little. Let me help.”

 _Let me help._ But it was Lando; Leia couldn’t allow Lando to… But a breath escaped between her lips, a tiny exhale, and his hands felt nice. She suddenly remembered being on the _Falcon,_ her hands in Han’s, and stood so abruptly that Lando looked startled.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I’m tired, too.”

Leia escaped to her room before Lando could say a word and leaned her back against the closed door. Blast.

Han called her Princess. She didn’t know why that mattered; he wasn’t the only one. Hell, C-3PO called her Princess.

But C-3PO wasn’t a scoundrel with charm who touched her in ways that made her think –  

No, Leia thought. No. She was tired, and worried, and drowning in this kriffing house. That was all.

She wanted to go to Luke but she somehow knew that was wrong; Luke wasn’t ready. She didn’t know how not to push.

In any case, Luke shared his room with Lando. If Leia went to him, it would be only so long before she would see Lando again, and she thought she would like to avoid him a bit longer than an hour or two.

Leia laid down in her empty bed and didn’t sleep.

-

It was likely a childish impulse that made Leia feel twinges of jealousy watching Lando and Luke make repairs to one of the speeders together. They declined her help, which was fine; Leia made no claims of being an expert mechanic. The sense of uselessness rankled, of course, but she would have gotten over it. It was nearly time for her communication with Mon Mothma so it wasn’t as though she had nothing to do.

Luke was smiling just a little, flicking blonde hair out of his eyes, and his fingers brushed Lando’s when he passed him a tool. Lando said something, too quietly for Leia to catch, and Luke’s smile grew a little more.

Leia didn’t know why she was thinking of Lando saying, _you know him better than I do,_ or, _he obviously adores you,_ or, _he just needs time._

Seemed like they were getting on just fine, from what Leia could tell. Luke hadn’t seemed that carefree around her since before they’d landed on this kriffing planet.

But she wasn’t jealous. That was absurd. What would she even be jealous of?

Leia ducked back inside to prepare for Mon, pretending she couldn’t hear Lando’s laughter.

-

Leia went with Lando to meet a contact in Mos Elrey, the sort of disreputable-looking being it figured Lando would know how to find. More whispers and rumors, the suggestion that Han wasn’t dead but that Jabba had a treasured prize in his palace.

Lando bought them drinks at the bar and Leia’s tasted legitimately terrible but she gulped it anyway.

“Might want to slow down a little,” Lando suggested, dark eyes amused.

Meeting Lando’s gaze firmly, Leia took a deliberately large swallow.

Lando laughed. “Yeah, okay, no one tells you what to do, I get it.”

It was late when they arrived back at the house; the night chill had already begun to set in. Luke made a pan of spicy vegetables and some unidentifiable meat and they ate together while Leia and Lando took turns describing the meet. Luke remained thoughtful and calm, while Leia still wanted to pull her hair out by the roots just to do something.

She was so tired and frustrated of all this waiting and seeing.

The morning brought no improvement, particularly not when she went into the kitchen to hear the sound of a speeder starting up. “Oh, not again,” Leia said, and grabbed a cloak to ward herself from the sand. “Lando, I’m going with Luke!” she called, and didn’t wait for a response.

She leapt into the other speeder and followed; she wasn’t quite quick enough to catch up but she was able to keep Luke in her sights. She slowed a little after a few klicks, thinking that maybe it would be best if Luke never caught on, if she could just see where he was spending his time.

She tracked him all the way to an abandoned homestead, one with signs of burning and decay. It gave her a bad feeling; she suspected she knew where she was.

Leia found the underground entrance; Luke was waiting for her inside.

She felt only a little guilty as she met his bright blue eyes. Of course he had known.

“You shouldn’t have come here, Leia.”

“You won’t tell me anything! You’re gone at all hours and I don’t know if you’re okay, if you’re hurting, if you’re…” Leia turned away, her cheeks hot. Damn it, damn it, damn it.

“I’m sorry,” Luke said softly, his hand tentative on her shoulder. “Leia, I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”

“You didn’t think,” Leia repeated. “No, you never think. Han is gone! I don’t know how to get him back! And you’re… I need you, Luke. I need you.”

“I’m sorry,” Luke said again, and Leia turned to face him.

“I need you,” she said, and kissed him.

Luke’s lips were as soft as on Hoth, and they parted in surprise beneath her own. He kissed her back, one hand on her hip, the one that hadn’t been replaced, the only hand he ever touched her with these days.

When Leia drew back, looking up into Luke’s reddened face, he said, “I thought…”

“Better if you don’t,” Leia said, and Luke made a small snort of huffed laughter. She circled her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his chest, and pretended that everything was fine, everything was good, everything was normal. She pretended she knew what she wanted.

“I would have understood,” she said. “You could have told me you were coming here. I would have understood.”

Luke stroked the back of Leia’s head, over her braided hair, and didn’t say anything.

-

When Leia and Luke got back, Lando watched them carefully but didn’t ask what had happened. He said that Chewbacca had checked in and would arrive on Tatooine within the next few days.

Leia retired to her room after they ate. Her mind was so full; what had she done? Han…

But she wasn’t sorry. Maybe that made her a bad person, but she wasn’t sorry. She felt drawn to Luke and sometimes she felt like he was the only one who understood. He understood her, he understood about Han, and he understood how it felt to be on this cesspool of a planet, waiting and seeing, while Han remained out of their reach.

She was brushing her hair when the knock came, a soft tapping.

Lando.

“Yes,” she said, and he came in, sitting on the small bed beside her.

“May I?”

Leia eyed him and then handed over the brush. She turned, so her back was to him.

Lando was gentle, long, careful strokes, untangling the knots smoothly with his fingers first, then the brush. It felt nice in a way that Leia wasn’t sure it should, uncommonly intimate.

He rubbed at her temples and Leia closed her eyes, biting her lip on a gasp.

When he spoke, Lando’s voice was low. “I can braid it for you, if you like.”

Leia could only nod.

His movements were so sure and Leia almost wondered how he knew, then realized she liked it better not knowing the answer. She liked the feel of his touch, his fingers parting and separating her hair, and she couldn’t remember feeling this –

A noise at the doorway made her open her eyes and look.

Luke looked like a startled animal, awkward and uncertain. “Sorry. I…”

“It’s not a closed party,” Lando said, an easy invitation, and Luke stepped into the room.

“I’m interrupting,” he said.

Leia rolled her eyes. “It’s only us, and he’s only fixing my hair. Come in.”

So Luke joined them, Lando shifting over. From over her shoulder Leia could just see the wideness of his eyes, the open curiosity, the hint of longing.

Lando must have seen, too, because he said, “Here,” and guided Luke’s hands into place.

“No!” Luke said, jerking, rising to his feet again. He was clenching his hand into a fist.

His hand. The one Vader…

Leia stood, her hair only half-done, the braid beginning to slip apart as she moved. Deliberately she took Luke’s hand in hers and set it at her temple, feeling Luke’s fingers reflexively curl into her hair. “You can touch,” she said. “It’s just you, and me.”

Lando was silent on the bed, watching.

Luke’s lips were faintly parted. He breathed in and out. “I shouldn’t--”

“You,” Leia repeated, “and me.”

He nodded once.

Leia sat back down, bringing Luke with her.

Very, very gently, Lando took Luke’s hands and showed him what to do. Leia closed her eyes again, Lando’s and Luke’s hands in her hair, and suppressed a sigh.

She wished she knew what she wanted.

-

Leia awoke to low voices in the dining area. She found Luke and Lando seated across from each other, comfort in their posture and expressions, Lando fingering the hilt of what looked to be a brand new lightsaber.

“Luke?” Leia said.

He met her eyes. “Figured you both should know a big part of what’s been occupying me lately. I built a new one.”

Lando handed her the hilt and Leia ran her fingers over it wonderingly. It was really quite the feat, she thought, for him to have done this on his own, no guidance, no formal lessons on construction. “Where did you get the crystal?”

Luke looked just a little sheepish. “You remember how I was delayed getting here?”

“Luke,” Leia admonished. “You could have been hurt.”

“Sounds like any other day since I joined the Rebellion, honestly.”

Lando chuckled and Leia smacked the back of his head, but she was having a hard time keeping a smile off her face. She gave Luke back the lightsaber.

“Next time you do something that reckless and stupid, tell me first.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Luke said, and his smile was the biggest and sweetest Leia had seen since Hoth.

-

In the afternoon they argued. Leia was fed up with this holding pattern; she couldn’t do it any longer. Lando said they had to be close; Leia shouted at him and made accusations she would probably regret later.

“Han can’t wait for us to fuck around like this! If he dies it will be our fault! It will be your kriffing fault for giving him to Vader in the first place,” she hissed.

Lando fell silent.

Leia seethed.

Luke said, “We’ll have to find a way into Jabba’s Palace.”

Lando and Luke both stared at him. “What?” Lando said.

“We always knew it would come to that. Someone will have to earn a way into his entourage. It’s the only way to know for certain where Han is.”

“That is a terrible idea,” Leia said. “Unacceptable.”

“It is,” Lando agreed. “But it might work.”

Both Luke and Leia turned to stare at Lando, Luke in surprise and Leia in disgruntlement. “You can’t be serious,” she said.

“Luke is right. I think we all knew it was unavoidable.”

Leia was too angry to consider that either of them had a point. “It’s too dangerous.”

Luke cocked an eyebrow. “Like that’s ever stopped any of us.” He coughed but the words ‘Vrogas Vas’ were still audible.

Glaring at him, Leia said, “Our solution to saving Han has to be better than leaping in with no genuine intel; it’s just bad business all around.”

“Leia,” Luke said, fixing her with his big blue eyes. “We have to know. How else will we? We’ve been running around in circles for weeks; you said it yourself.”

“Then I’ll do it; I’ll--”

“No,” Lando interrupted. “I will.”

Luke looked as startled as Leia felt; she had expected the argument to come from Luke and it seemed as though Luke had in fact been meaning to argue. “You?”

“I may be respectable now but I have my hands in quite a few jars still. Building a cover will be easy. Bounty hunters are in and out of there all the time.”

“Chewbacca will never agree to it.”

“Chewbacca wants Han back and he doesn’t care all that much what happens to me. He’ll go for it.”

“You’re going to end up dead,” Leia accused, almost surprised by how much she loathed the idea. She could risk herself for Han, but not Luke, not Lando. She couldn’t lose... “Right alongside Han.”

“Have you got any better ideas?”

“No,” she admitted. “No. That’s the problem.”

And she hated that she knew Lando was right. He was the best choice.

“It will work,” Luke said, that calm surety in his voice. “We’ll get Han back.”

“Have some faith, Princess,” Lando added. “I’ve done worse than this. Han would do it for me.”

 _Yes,_ Leia thought, closing her eyes. _Yes, he would._

-

Leia supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised that Lando had the sort of contacts that made developing a convincing identity as a bounty hunter simple and quick. He hadn’t been exaggerating. She also supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised that he cut an impressive figure in the armor he had acquired.

“Take the damn helmet off,” she said, waving her hand.

Lando was smirking when he removed it and set it down on the small table in the sitting area. “No one blinks twice at bounty hunters leaving their helmets on all the time; look at Fett. Even if someone would be able to recognize me, with this, I’ll be safe from scrutiny.”

As if that was the only risk. Leia’s gaze slid to Luke, who shrugged, and then back to Lando. “I still think we should wait for Chewie to get back.”

“We don’t need Chewie for this part,” Lando said, the same argument they had had over and over again now. “I’m just finding Han. After that, then we’ll discuss our options, and then we’ll need Chewie. This is recon. I can manage. Trust me a little.”

“Trust you,” Leia repeated.

“I know, I know, I’m the one whose fault this is in the first place, but you have to believe me, Leia, I want to make this right, I want to--”

“I know that! You think I would have ever agreed to this if I thought you would screw us over? Screw Han over?”

“But--”

“She’s worried,” Luke interjected, soft and firm. “She would rather do it herself; Leia doesn’t like giving up control. And she’s worried about you.”

Leia stared at him, feeling Lando’s wide-eyed gaze on the side of her face. “Well, thanks for that,” she muttered.

“You are controlling,” Luke said, utterly unrepentant, though he moved on at Leia’s glare. “And it wouldn’t kill you to admit you care.”

She had told Han she cared, and look what happened.

Feeling as though she was rapidly losing control of everything, let alone this dumb plan, Leia said, “Lando is a valuable member of our team, and--”

“Right. He’s valued as being part of the team. Uh huh.”

“Damn it, Luke!”

“As entertaining as it is to have you two fight over me,” Lando said, “this really is pointless. I’m going to Jabba’s Palace tomorrow, and that’s it.”

“We’re not fighting over you,” Leia and Luke both said, nearly in sync, before exchanging a confused glance.

Lando raised an eyebrow. “That was a joke.”

“I knew that,” Luke said, a blush rising in his cheeks.

Leia kept staring at him. How could she have missed it? Luke had been more reserved lately, sure, but he was still _Luke._ Luke whose crushes were so obvious you could see them in the next star system.

Luke had a crush on Lando.

Well, that was just… That was fine, and of course he did, and it wasn’t like Leia cared; she had enough on her mind without this nonsense and it didn’t matter, she didn’t care, she –

Leia didn’t realize she had stood up until Luke was gripping her wrist and looking into her eyes. “Leia,” he said, and damn him, he didn’t know anything, he couldn’t know any of what she was thinking or feeling, he _couldn’t_ –

Luke kissed her mouth. Leia grabbed his hip; she thought about slapping him for his audacity but she didn’t actually want to; she was tired and frustrated and Lando was leaving in the morning and Han was gone and…

“I’ll leave you alone,” Lando muttered, intrusive enough to earn both Luke and Leia’s attention. He looked weirdly out of sorts, Lando who moved like he belonged everywhere.

“Wait,” Leia said, and now when she looked at Luke she felt like maybe he did know what she was thinking, and maybe she knew what he was thinking.

Leia was tired and frustrated and Lando was leaving in the morning and Han was gone. Leia needed something that was real, something she could feel that wasn’t worry or fear or dread.

Luke had a crush on Lando but he had a crush on her, too.

He gave her a tiny nod and then said to Lando, “Stay.”

“No, I know when I’m not needed. You two clearly aren’t fighting over me and I should probably get to bed anyway; this has got to go off right. The plan, I mean, not you two, though I’m sure I hope you’re very happy.”

“Lando,” Leia said, walking the scant steps it took to stand in front of him. He looked down at her, and then at her hand when she stroked the side of his waist. In a gesture reminiscent of their first meeting on Bespin, Leia took his hand and raised it to her lips; she kissed the back. Lando’s breath hitched.

“Please stay,” she said, and held her free hand to Luke.

He took it, easing in close to Lando.

Lando looked between them and then said, “Maybe we should find a room with a bed,” and Leia laughed easier than she had in weeks.

-

Leia awoke the next morning on the floor, in the nest of blankets they had made when it became clear the three of them were never going to fit in any of the small beds they had available. She felt more at ease waking up than she had in months, and she blinked at Lando’s dark head, where he lay stretched out next to her. She turned and looked at Luke, who was sitting cross-legged a foot away, meditating. He must have sensed her looking because he winked at her before refocusing.

Leia stroked her knuckles over Lando’s cheek and hoped he would sleep a while longer, as long as he could. She stood, draping a cloak over her shoulders, and she ruffled Luke’s hair when she went by him and out into the hall.

In the kitchen she made tea and sat with the mug warm between her hands. In the morning it all seemed more complicated, last night, what they had done, where they went next. Her and Luke, her and Lando, the three of them together.

Her and Han.

But Lando would be gone in a matter of hours, and he would find out with no room for doubt what had happened to Han. They would find Han and bring him home. Leia’s suddenly complicated personal life didn’t seem important in the balance of it.

She didn’t know what last night was but she knew that she had needed it, and she knew she couldn’t regret the way Luke had smiled at her, or the way Lando’s hands felt on her skin.

Leia would figure it out. She always did.

 


End file.
